SOME MEMORIES OF ONAM FROM CHILDHOOD

Another Onam is only a couple of weeks away. Sitting lazily in my lazy chair, the memories took me back to my childhood. Onam was very different in those days.

We usually had quarterly examinations just before Onam holidays which stretched for 10 to 12 days. The relief of being from exams added to the sweetness of the Onam celebrations which started from ‘Atham’ day through next 10 days to ‘Thiruvonam’ day.

Our general routine was to get up very early, take a dip in the family pond, recite mantras  (which was a routine for us even in normal days, but those ten days some of us used to rush through it) and head for the nearby hillock with friends. We would shout at the top of our voice, ‘ Poove poli Poove…..’ and pluck all kinds of beautiful flowers and head back to make pookkalams, the colourful floral patterns in the courtyard.

We would have ‘pazham nurukku’ – big bananas or plantains cut into pieces and steamed, with roasted pappadoms and crisp banana chips.

Then we go outdoors to play different games with all neighbourhood children join in. ‘Thalamappanthu’ was a favourite game which had some faint resemblance to cricket, but played with a ball made of palm leaves. ‘AAttakkalam’, ‘Onathallu’ etc were more violent games. ‘Pulikal’, ‘vadomvali’ etc were also some very popular games.

Of course girls used to have their own games, not so violent, of course. Kaikottikkali was very popular among girls.

Three – four days before the Thiruvonam, the ‘mathevars’ the representatives of Mahabali would be coming. The courtyard is cleaned and nice patterns were drawn there with rice batter and the mathevars (which were in the form of clay ingots) were kept in the middle. On the Thiruvonam day Mahabali himself would come and there is a special seat for him in the middle on a stool.

‘We will play ‘Onavillu’, which is an instrument on which we can play as we play on a chenda – the Kerala drum. Thayampaka using Onavillu was very popular in those days.

The Onassadya – the feast – is another very important part of the Onam celebrations. Traditional Kerala dishes like kalan, olan, aviyal etc were all part of this delicious meal.

Those Onams do remain in our memories…..